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Command Sergeant Major Richard Carroll from the Illinois National Guard speaking to a crowd at Sullivan VFW on Veterans Day.

•November 17, 2021•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

Sullivan VFW welcomed Command Sergeant Major Richard Carroll of Mattoon to speak about what it means to him to be a veteran on Veterans Day.
In June 1987, he was 17 years old and stepped off the bus at Fort McClellan in Alabama. He revealed that he joined the National Guard for the discipline and focus. In the summer of 1990, he was working security at the State Fair in the National Guard tent.
The next thing he knew, a few months later, he found himself in the middle of the desert during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Carroll exited the Army in 1995 to pursue a family and his career in law enforcement. “It just never left me, and I think a lot of people who have served feel the same way,” he said.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.